My favorite part of the exhibit was the part where the visitors got to see the engravings of the lord proprietors. This past summer I actually took the course for North Carolina History. It was obviously a summer class which meant that everything was condensed but it was still pretty cool to get to see visuals representations of what I learned and refresh my memory of the course. Anyway I chose the engravings as my favorite because I always thought it was interesting that these guys planned for North Carolina to turn out as a feudal system, but their plans never really went through. And yet, their names are still remembered today simply because some parts of North Carolina are named after them. These guys failed, but failure doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be important in history.
I think I would do an in class activity where the students would be split into groups and I would give each group a little piece of North Carolina. As a group they could determine what to call their county, what kind of government they would establish, who leads, etc.
I would more than likely use some type of scavenger hunt (frankly any activity other than a worksheet). The exhibit is big so I would divide the class so they could go “scavenge” for facts and then I would have them “reveal” what they found in their part. Essentially I would have the students teach the rest of the class about their part of the exhibit.
I would focus on the exhibits starting with the Hope, Fear, and Freedom exhibit just because I think that these exhibits would be the most relevant to middle schoolers regarding current North Carolina. They know all about the Revolution so why not just focus on the 1850’s and beyond.
I was thinking I would have the students, in groups, scavenge for a set number of relevant facts in each part of the museum. I would probably give the groups multiple parts of the exhibit since the exhibit is big. I might ask about the artifacts found in their section and how the article is relevant to the exhibit (their part).
Then, I would have the groups essentially teach the rest of the class about their section of the exhibit.
I think I have the standard concerns of any teacher taking a large group of students to a large exhibit. What if someone gets hurt, What if they got lost, what if they start horsing around and break something, what if I accidently leave a student behind. Like I said standard concerns.
Activity
Divide the class into groups
Assign groups parts of the exhibit
Each group will examine the artifacts and select one artifact for each section that they think had the most relevance either for the time period or to them.
Each group will create 10 take aways based on their sections (major events, facts, etc.)
Each group will teach the rest of the class about their section(s)
We will use the take aways to construct a timeline as a class.
NC Museum of History
My favorite part of the exhibit was the part where the visitors got to see the engravings of the lord proprietors. This past summer I actually took the course for North Carolina History. It was obviously a summer class which meant that everything was condensed but it was still pretty cool to get to see visuals representations of what I learned and refresh my memory of the course. Anyway I chose the engravings as my favorite because I always thought it was interesting that these guys planned for North Carolina to turn out as a feudal system, but their plans never really went through. And yet, their names are still remembered today simply because some parts of North Carolina are named after them. These guys failed, but failure doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be important in history.
Activity